ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 N4330 L2/12-322 2012-09-27

Title: Proposal to Encode the SANDHI MARK for Sharada Source: Script Encoding Initiative (SEI) Author: Anshuman Pandey ([email protected]) Status: Liaison Contribution Action: For consideration by UTC and WG2 Date: 2012-09-27

1 Introduction

This is a preliminary proposal to encode a new character in the Sharada block of the Universal Character Set (ISO/IEC 10646). Properties of the proposed character are:

          111C9    Po 0 L N AL

2 Description

The     is used in some Sharada manuscripts for indicating external sandhi in Sanskrit documents. It is a below-base mark that is written after the syllable where sandhi occurs. The excerpt below, from Bhagavad Gītā 1.1, illustrates usage of the mark (adapted from Lokesh Chandra 1982):

Here the   occurs in the phrases pāṇḍavāścaiva and kimakurvata . In the first phrase, it indicates ⃓ + + ⃓ vowel sandhi between ca and eva (°a e° → °ai°); in the second it indicates fusion of a bare consonant and a vowel between kim and akurvata (°m a° → °ma°).

In this manuscript of the BG, the   is written twice in order to indicate sandhi between two long vowels, as in the following excerpt from BG 2.1:

1 Proposal to Encode the SANDHI MARK for Sharada Anshuman Pandey

Here the doubled mark occurs in the phrase kr̥ payāvisṭ aṃ , where it indicates sandhi of identical long vowels ++ between kr̥ payā and āvisṭ aṃ (°ā ā° → °ā°). However, the double   is not consistently through- out the manuscript for marking long-vowel sandhi.

3 Relationship to Avagraha

The graphical shape of     is similar to that of ᇁ +111C1   . To be sure, the  is also a type of sandhi mark, but it is used specifically in Sharada and other Indic scripts to indicate the elision of word-inital a that results from sandhi initiated by the final syllable of the preceding word. In the Sharada manuscript of the Bhagavad Gītā that is analyzed here, the   and  are distinctive, as is illustrated in the following example:

Here, the  (transliterated as apostrophe) occurs in BG 2.22 in the phrase naro’parānị to indicate a-elision in aparānị on account of the visarga in naro (naraḥ), following the rule (°aḥ a° → °o ’ °).

However, the usage of  is just as inconsistent as usage of   in this manuscript. In the below excerpt from verse 1.13, an  would be expected at the position marked by the arrow, between śabdastumulo and abhavat:

↑

In other parts of the text, the   acts both as an  and as a general indicator of external sandhi. The following excerpt from BG 1.40 shows three occurrences of the  :

In the above phrase kr̥ tsnamadharmobhibhavatyuta, the first and third   indicate external sandhi + + + between kr̥ tsnam and adharmo (°m a° → °ma°) and between abhibhavati and uta (°i u° → °yu°), respectively. The second mark plays the role of  and represents elision of the initial a in abhibhavati on account of the visarga in adharmo (adharmaḥ).

2 Proposal to Encode the SANDHI MARK for Sharada Anshuman Pandey

Given the function of , it is highly likely that usage of the character was expanded by Sharada scribes for indicating other types of sandhi, resulting in the subscript form. While the subscript avagraha may be used by some scribes to represent both external sandhi and a-elision, the normative  cannot be used generally for the former. For this reason, it is necessary to encode the   as an independent character.

4 Encoded Representation

The   is written after an orthographic syllable in order to indicate that the syllable represents a word boundary that is affected by sandhi. The mark is not intended for specifying linguistic syllables and, therefore, it does not delimit correct morphological boundaries. This is explained below. In the following excerpt from BG 1.21, the text vākyamidamāha is highlighted: + +

The mark occurs after the syllables mi and mā; however, the true word boundaries of the phrase are vākyam idam āha. In the below example from BG 1.40, the text bhavatyuta is highlighted: +

The mark occurs after the syllable tyu; however, the true word boundaries are bhavaty uta, or rather bhavati + uta (°i u° → °yu°). In the next example, the text kr̥ payāvisṭ aṃ is highlighted: ++

Here, the doubled   occurs after yā, but the true word boundaries are kr̥ payā āvisṭ aṃ .

The practice of writing the   after the syllable tha embodies the sandhi operation is to be followed in the encoded representation. Following this, the four syllables that occur in the above examples would be represented as:

• ᆴᆩ (mi ) = +

• ᆩᆳ (mā ) = . +

• ᆠᆶ (tyu ) = +

• ᆪᆳ (yā ) = . ++

3 Proposal to Encode the SANDHI MARK for Sharada Anshuman Pandey

5 Ordering

The   may occur together with ᇈ +111C8   and may either precede or follow the separator:

In such cases, the visual order should be preserved in the encoded representation.

6 Glyph Positioning

When the   is written between a consonant and a left-spacing or non-spacing vowel sign, it should be positioned equidistant between the consonant and the following letter or sign. When it occurs between a consonant and a right-spacing vowel sign, it should be positioned directly beneath the vowel sign. Both of these cases are illustrated below:

When two  -s occur after   , they are centered beneath the sign.

7 References

Lokesh Chandra [comp.]. 1982. Sanskrit Texts from Kashmir, vol. 1. Śata-Piṭaka Series: Indo-Asian Literatures, volume 298. New Delhi: Sharada Rani.

Pandey, Anshuman. 2009. “Proposal to Encode the Sharada Script in ISO/IEC 10646”. N3595 L2/09- 074R2. August 5, 2009. http://std.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/n3595.pdf

8 Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Shriramana Sharma for his discussions on the proposed character.

This project was made possible in part by a grant from the United States National Endowment for the Hu- manities, which funded the Universal Scripts Project (part of the Script Encoding Initiative at the University of California, Berkeley). Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

4 ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2/WG 2 PROPOSAL SUMMARY FORM TO ACCOMPANY SUBMISSIONS 1 FOR ADDITIONS TO THE REPERTOIRE OF ISO/IEC 10646 Please fill all the sections A, B and C below. Please read Principles and Procedures Document (P & P) from http://www.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/principles.html for guidelines and details before filling this form. Please ensure you are using the latest Form from http://www.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/summaryform.html. See also http://www.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/roadmaps.html for latest Roadmaps. A. Administrative 1. Title: Proposal to Encode the SANDHI MARK for Sharada 2. Requester's name: Script Encoding Initiative (SEI) / Anshuman Pandey ([email protected]) 3. Requester type (Member body/Liaison/Individual contribution): Liaison contribution 4. Submission date: 2012-09-27 5. Requester's reference (if applicable): 6. Choose one of the following: This is a complete proposal: Yes (or) More information will be provided later: B. Technical – General 1. Choose one of the following: a. This proposal is for a new script (set of characters): Proposed name of script: b. The proposal is for addition of character(s) to an existing block: Yes Name of the existing block: Sharada 2. Number of characters in proposal: 1 3. Proposed category (select one from below - see section 2.2 of P&P document): A-Contemporary X B.1-Specialized (small collection) B.2-Specialized (large collection) C-Major extinct D-Attested extinct E-Minor extinct F-Archaic Hieroglyphic or Ideographic G-Obscure or questionable usage symbols 4. Is a repertoire including character names provided? Yes a. If YES, are the names in accordance with the “character naming guidelines” in Annex L of P&P document? Yes b. Are the character shapes attached in a legible form suitable for review? Yes 5. Fonts related: a. Who will provide the appropriate computerized font to the Project Editor of 10646 for publishing the standard? Anshuman Pandey b. Identify the party granting a license for use of the font by the editors (include address, e-mail, ftp-site, etc.): Anshman Pandey ([email protected]) 6. References: a. Are references (to other character sets, dictionaries, descriptive texts etc.) provided? Yes b. Are published examples of use (such as samples from newspapers, magazines, or other sources) of proposed characters attached? Yes 7. Special encoding issues: Does the proposal address other aspects of character data processing (if applicable) such as input, presentation, sorting, searching, indexing, transliteration etc. (if yes please enclose information)? Yes

8. Additional Information: Submitters are invited to provide any additional information about Properties of the proposed Character(s) or Script that will assist in correct understanding of and correct linguistic processing of the proposed character(s) or script. Examples of such properties are: Casing information, Numeric information, Currency information, Display behaviour information such as line breaks, widths etc., Combining behaviour, Spacing behaviour, Directional behaviour, Default Collation behaviour, relevance in Mark Up contexts, Compatibility equivalence and other Unicode normalization related information. See the Unicode standard at http://www.unicode.org for such information on other scripts. Also see Unicode Character Database ( http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr44/ ) and associated Unicode Technical Reports for information needed for consideration by the Unicode Technical Committee for inclusion in the Unicode Standard.

1 Form number: N4102-F (Original 1994-10-14; Revised 1995-01, 1995-04, 1996-04, 1996-08, 1999-03, 2001-05, 2001-09, 2003-11, 2005-01, 2005-09, 2005-10, 2007-03, 2008-05, 2009-11, 2011-03, 2012-01) C. Technical - Justification 1. Has this proposal for addition of character(s) been submitted before? No If YES explain 2. Has contact been made to members of the user community (for example: National Body, user groups of the script or characters, other experts, etc.)? No If YES, with whom? If YES, available relevant documents: 3. Information on the user community for the proposed characters (for example: size, demographics, information technology use, or publishing use) is included? Yes Reference: There is an active community of Sharada specialists 4. The context of use for the proposed characters (type of use; common or rare) Common Reference: The character is used in some records for indicating sandhi breaks 5. Are the proposed characters in current use by the user community? Yes If YES, where? Reference: Used by specialists studying the Sharada script 6. After giving due considerations to the principles in the P&P document must the proposed characters be entirely in the BMP? N/A If YES, is a rationale provided? If YES, reference: 7. Should the proposed characters be kept together in a contiguous range (rather than being scattered)? N/A 8. Can any of the proposed characters be considered a presentation form of an existing character or character sequence? No If YES, is a rationale for its inclusion provided? If YES, reference: 9. Can any of the proposed characters be encoded using a composed character sequence of either existing characters or other proposed characters? No If YES, is a rationale for its inclusion provided? If YES, reference: 10. Can any of the proposed character(s) be considered to be similar (in appearance or function) to, or could be confused with, an existing character? No If YES, is a rationale for its inclusion provided? If YES, reference: 11. Does the proposal include use of combining characters and/or use of composite sequences? No If YES, is a rationale for such use provided? If YES, reference: Is a list of composite sequences and their corresponding glyph images (graphic symbols) provided? If YES, reference: 12. Does the proposal contain characters with any special properties such as control function or similar semantics? No If YES, describe in detail (include attachment if necessary)

13. Does the proposal contain any Ideographic compatibility characters? No If YES, are the equivalent corresponding unified ideographic characters identified? If YES, reference: